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Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Osho, born Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Acharya Rajneesh and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

1931

1990

Indian Mystic, Guru and Spiritual Teacher, Professor of Philosophy, advocated more open attitude toward sexuality

Author Quotes

What I am teaching is religiousness, a quality. Religion is a dead dogma, fixed principles, frozen fossils. What I am teaching to you is a living, flowing religiousness - an experience like love.

When you give up, the whole universe will support you, nothing will disagree with you, because you're not disagree with anything

Tao mystics never talk about God, reincarnation, heaven, hell. No, they don't talk about these things. These are all creations of human mind: explanations for something which can never be explained, explanations for the mystery. In fact, all explanations are against God because explanation de-mystifies existence. Existence is a mystery, and one should accept it as a mystery and not pretend to have any explanation. No, explanation is not needed ? only exclamation, a wondering heart, awakened, surprised, feeling the mystery of life each moment. Then, and only then, you know what truth is. And truth liberates.

The only way to know something absolutely is to experience it for yourself; anything less is theory, speculation, and belief.

There exists no God. What exists is godliness, and that godliness surrounds you. We are all in the same ocean.

This inner flame, this inner light is there, potentially there? like a seed. Once you start using it, it sprouts. Soon you will see ? the spring has come and it is blossoming and you are full of the fragrance of the unknown and the unknowable. God has descended in you.

Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself.

What is a prayer? Prayer is sending blessing to all. Prayer is sending your compassion to all. Prayer is creating an antidote of negative thoughts - it is positively.

When you love, love as if the person is a god, not less than that. Never love a woman as a woman and never love a man as a man.

If somebody murders somewhere, I have a part in it. Even if I am a sleeper -- I was sleeping, I don?t know about the man, I will never hear about him -- and somebody somewhere, in the Himalayas, commits a murder, if we are not individuals I have a part in it, I am also responsible. It is not so easy to throw the responsibility: "I am not committing a murder, I am a saint." No saint is a saint because every sinner is implied in him.

If you live with unhealthy people, to be healthy is dangerous. If you live with insane people, then to be sane is dangerous. If you live in a madhouse, even if you are not mad at least pretend that you are mad; otherwise those mad people will kill you.

Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the scriptures; you will believe only in your own experience.

Let my blood be a seed of freedom.

Look for the mysterious in life. Wherever you look ? in the white clouds, in the stars in the night, in the flowers, in a flowing river ? wherever you look, look for the mystery. And whenever you find that a mystery is there, meditate on it. Meditation means: dissolve yourself before that mystery, annihilate yourself before that mystery, disperse yourself before that mystery. Be no more, and let the mystery be so total that you are absorbed in it. And suddenly a new door opens, a new perception is achieved.

May God have mercy on the assassins.[last words]

Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking to what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself? Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all. You don?t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem? then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you? it is irrelevant! When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don?t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.

Only laughter makes a man rich, but the laughter has to be blissful.

Sadness is silent, it is yours. It is coming because you are alone. It is giving you a chance to go deeper into your aloneness. Rather than jumping from one shallow happiness to another shallow happiness and wasting your life, it is better to use sadness as a means for meditation. Witness it. It is a friend! It opens the door of your eternal aloneness.

If the child wants to climb a mountain, let him do it. If you want to climb a tree, let him do it. Let him go wherever he may experience the adventure and its ability to not fall prey to fear. Although some children die every year - climbing mountains or diving into rivers or climbing trees - it would not matter. Why, if all children in a community become fearful and lacked the ability to not fall prey to fear, that whole community, although it seems alive, really would be dead.

If you love a flower, don?t pick it up. Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.

It is a great mystery. Any effort to find an explanation is wrong - just to love, to live with him and dance with him.

Let someone dance and let him bring all his energy to it, and soon he will find there is someone inside him who is not dancing , who is utterly steady and still. That is his axle, his center. That which is dancing is his circumference, his body and he himself is the center.

Love and respect yourself and never compromise for anything. And then you will be surprised how much growth starts happening of its own accord.. as if rocks have been removed and the river has started flowing.

May this Body immolated and this Blood sacrificed for Mankind nourish us also, that we may give our body and our blood over to suffering and pain, like Christ -- not for Self, but to give harvests of peace and justice to our People. (Uttered seconds before a gunshot pierced his heart as he prepared to consecrate the Eucharist.)

Nobody can teach you love. Love you have to find yourself, within your being, by raising your consciousness to higher levels. And when love comes, there is no question of responsibility. You do things because you enjoy doing them for the person you love. You are not obliging the person, you are not even wanting anything in return, not even gratitude. On the contrary, you are grateful that the person has allowed you to do something for him. It was your joy, sheer joy. Love knows nothing of responsibility. It does many things, it is very creative; it shares all that it has, but it is not a responsibility, remember. Responsibility is an ugly word in comparison to love. Love is natural. Responsibility is created by the cunning priests, politicians who want to dominate you in the name of God, in the name of the nation, in the name of family, in the name of religion -- any fiction will do. But they don't talk about love. On the contrary, they are all against love, because love is unable to be controlled by them. A man of love acts out of his own heart, not according to any moral code. A man of love will not join the army because it is his responsibility to fight for his nation. A man of love will say there are no nations, and there is no question of any fight.